Although the Legislature is in a summer recess with occasional pro forma sessions and no votes expected until July 17 at the earliest, this week did see an attempt in the Senate to advance the Medicaid expansion bill to the Senate floor. This report contains the vote on that, and some recent votes of interest not included in previous issues for reasons of space.

Y = Yes, N = No, X = Not Voting

House Bill 4714, Advance Medicaid expansion bill to full Senate: Failed 12 to 18 in the Senate on July 3 To discharge the Committee on Government Operations from further consideration of the House-passed bill that would implement the Medicaid expansion component of the federal health care law (called "Obamacare" by most people). This would bring the bill directly to the full Senate for consideration and possibly a vote. Because no votes were expected nine Senators were not present.

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Senate Bill 401, Insulate DIA art collection from federal bankruptcy liquidation: Passed 24 to 13 in the Senate on June 11 To require “art institutes” in the state to adopt a code of ethics for museums published by the American Alliance of Museums. Reportedly this is a means of insulating the Detroit Institute of Art’s collection from being sold off should the city file for bankruptcy in federal court. Toward that same end, the bill would prohibit a municipal art museum from being sold, leased, pledged, mortgaged, or otherwise encumbered.

Senate Bill 114, Revise commercial rental tax assessments: Passed 37 to 1 in the Senate on June 13 To eliminate the use of rental property occupancy rate decreases in determining the taxable value of property. The bill is a response to a 2002 Supreme Court ruling (WPW vs. Troy) which held that the Constitutional tax cap put in place by Proposal A in 1994 capped annual increases in the assessments of commercial property whose assessment had previously been lowered because of high vacancy rates.

Senate Bill 283, Repeal annual union/corporate PAC contribution “re-up” requirement: Passed 36 to 1 in the Senate on May 22 To repeal a requirement that union members or employees of a corporation who wish to have contributions to a union or corporate PAC automatically deducted from their paycheck must affirmatively give consent on an annual basis by means of signing a permission form. The bill would repeal the annual “re-up” requirement.

House Bill 4768, Ban DEQ groundwater discharge sodium limits: Passed 65 to 43 in the House on June 11 To prohibit the Department of Environmental Quality from imposing limitations on the amount of sodium in groundwater discharges allowed under state water pollution regulations.

SOURCE: MichiganVotes.org, a free, non-partisan website created by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, providing concise, non-partisan, plain-English descriptions of every bill and vote in the Michigan House and Senate. Please visit http://www.MichiganVotes.org.

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